--accursed be the memory
of that fellow Tightfit in Old Bond Street, who used to screw his hats
on our cranium when we were young, and ere London had awakened us! As
you value your comfort, dear reader, never purchase a hard hat. A hard
heart may be borne with, but a hard hat--never! And last of all, a hat
should be light--yes, the lighter the better--light as a gossamer web,
though 'tis a simile that will not bear stretching. You may have the
misfortune to be a heavy-headed man, but do not add to it that of
being heavy-hatted. Avoid the extremity of suffering; and observe the
climax of ill from which we would shield your head--a narrow-brimmed,
hard, heavy, high-crowned hat--

"tode gar brotois megiston elthet' ek theon kakon."

The covering of the head, then, must have its usefulness made
ornamental, if not beautiful; and the due ornamentation of it will
depend principally upon its form, but also upon its colour and
material. Now, form is the principal thing; every one that has half
an eye for art will tell you this--'tis an admitted axiom. Either,
then, the shape of the covering should conform to that of the head, or
it should not, and we take our ground in support of the latter
position. The natural form of the head is determined by the rotundity
of the cranium, beautifully modified by the waving curls of the
hair--we speak of the abstract well-formed head; and nothing that
approaches to the same shape will ever do more than give a bad
substitute for the outline of the head as nature framed it. Any
covering conceals the hair; and if you remove from sight this
intrinsically beautiful integument, it is a principle of bad taste to
put in its place only a poor copy of the same contour. If you cover
the head, cover it with something that forms lines not curving like
the skull, nor yet so angular as to create too striking an opposition
of ideas in the mind of the beholder. A close-fitting untasseled
skull-cap does not improve the form of the head, for it is not half so
graceful as the hair; but a square hat or pyramidal cap is truly
detestable. This is the reason why the common nightcap is ugly; it
fits the head too closely, and its upper end conveys the ludicrous
idea of something made to be pulled at. On the other hand, the double
nightcap, pulled out and allowed to hang down on one shoulder, Spanish
fashion, is less ugly--though far removed from our own ideas of
beauty--because it introduces a new system of curve